Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, right, looks on as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Stephen Johnson answers a question during a news conference at the Energy Department in Washington on ... more

Photo: LAUREN VICTORIA BURKE

Boxer rips EPA chief as bowing to industry / Official says policies speed up benefits to the environment

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2007-02-07 04:00:00 PDT Washington -- California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer ripped the Environmental Protection Agency's top official Tuesday for rules changes that could limit the input of scientific advisers into agency decisions and reduce public access to information about toxic substances in communities.

"I want to send a clear signal to EPA and to this administration: We are watching," she said. "No longer will EPA rollbacks quietly escape scrutiny."

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Johnson defended the Bush administration's record on the environment, saying his agency had pursued policies aimed at cutting the costs of regulation and giving companies incentives to reduce their pollution.

Boxer devoted the hearing to shedding light on half a dozen controversial decisions made by the EPA late last year, which she said received little scrutiny from the formerly Republican-led Congress. Among them:

-- The decision to shut down or cut access to seven EPA libraries across the country. The libraries are used by scientists, agency employees and citizens looking for information about public health and environmental hazards in their neighborhoods.

-- The agency in December eased the rules on industry for the reporting of their discharge of toxic chemicals. Previously, companies that released 500 pounds of chemicals were required to file a detailed report. Under the new rule, firms would file detailed accounts only after releasing 2,000 pounds of chemicals.

-- The EPA in December proposed changing its decades-old policy that asked scientific advisory boards to study and develop new air quality standards before the agency would announce them. The move to lessen the influence of the advisory boards would strengthen the hand of the agency's political appointees in setting policy.

Democratic senators on the committee complained that the agency's decisions seemed designed to satisfy the requests of key industry groups.

The Battery Council International, a trade group of battery manufacturers and lead smelters, sent a letter to the EPA in July urging it to revoke the ambient air quality standard for lead -- which the agency said in December it is considering. The trade group also asked the EPA to expedite the decision by changing how the agency and scientists review its proposals.

Boxer warned that "if the standard is revoked, there is no assurance that lead will be monitored in air across the country. Polluters could emit dangerous levels of lead without being detected."

Johnson insisted he is committed to reducing emissions of lead, which pose health risks to humans, especially children, even at low levels.

In written testimony, he noted that lead concentrations in the air had fallen by 95 percent since leaded gasoline was banned but said it was too early to say whether the lead standard would be revoked.

Boxer and Johnson got into a testy exchange over the EPA's closure of its libraries.

Johnson called it an effort to modernize the libraries now that many people are accessing agency data and scientific reports on the Internet. He said the reports kept in the libraries either would be made available online or would be donated to other libraries.

But Boxer read e-mails from EPA librarians that detailed the destruction of agency reports and other documents.

"There's something about Americans, they don't like things being destroyed -- libraries, books, movies, things like that," Boxer said. "The image of it is discomforting."

"We have not been disposing of documents," insisted Johnson, who noted that the agency halted plans to close more libraries because of the outcry.

But Johnson received a little help from Republicans on the committee. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., the panel's ranking Republican, accused critics of the EPA's library plan of being "hysterical" and motivated by the desire to save a few union jobs.

Inhofe asked Johnson if he knew that the EPA's libraries held titles including "Memoirs of a Geisha," "Fat Chicks Rule!: How to Survive in a Thin-Centric World," and the Dr. Seuss book, "The Lorax." Johnson smiled as each title was read, saying he was aware the EPA had those books.

Boxer, annoyed by the scripted exchange with Inhofe, commented sarcastically: "I'm amazed that the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency would know what books are in the library. ... You're a multitasker, that's for sure."

It's not the first time Boxer and Johnson have clashed. The California Democrat held up Johnson's nomination to head the EPA until the agency dropped a program that paid parents to monitor the health effects of pesticides on their children.

Boxer warned Johnson that he should expect to spend more time in her hearing room explaining his agency's decisions.

"It's over in terms of your not having to come before the committees of Congress to respond to them," she said. "This is just the start."

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